The leaders of the United Arab Emirates have been lobbying for greater landing rights at Canadian airports, and now they are pleading their case to none other than Liberal leadership hopeful Bob Rae. They must not understand Canadian politics very well, because there is precious little Bob Rae can do it about the situation. If you are going to do a publicity stunt, why not go for a meet and greet with the leader of the opposition? Why go to his political rival? Granted they probably asked Iggy first, he wanted nothing to do with it, and passed the hot potato. I don't think you are going to sway all that many voters by taking the UAE's side in this dispute.
When they kicked our military out of Camp Mirage, that clearly punitive action is where you walk away from the negotiating table. Punishing Canada is not the best way to get what you want and you can't reward that behavior. If you think that we should have granted more runway space to their airline prior to the expulsion from Camp Mirage, that's fine; but they should have complained to Bob Rae before evicting us from our base. Do the PR campaign before the punitive action. You don't want to send a message to other countries that this is how you get what you want from Canada.
What did the CSIS director tell us about foreign govts exerting influence over our politicians. What does the UAE expect Rae to do and do they have anything on him or the liberals. Maybe the leadership debts will suddenly be paid in full.
ReplyDeleteThey WON'T get what they want from Canada!
ReplyDeleteMy country seems to have taken a different tact of late where we might be seen as the aggressor because we're starting to push back.
Good on us and our frequently ball less government.
We need to watch the both of them: Liberals and UAE. All this country needs is islamofascist princes meddling in our political affairs. Any hint of treason and we nail em both. It will make adscam look like charity.
ReplyDeleteUAE can take its games to the UN where it belongs.
Wait until they find out Rae's wife is Jewish . . . that should cause the little pinheads to implode even further.
ReplyDeleteMust be the desert heat that makes them so stupid.
Bob Rae will have to deal with Liberal Senator Colin Kenny on the UAE question who has no use for them, states his position strongly, as you can read in his article in the Ottawa Citizen. I think that Bob Rae just stepped in the ka ka and Ignatieff now has a big problem to sort out in the Liberal family. Kenny pulls no punches on this one and lines up with Harper 100%.
ReplyDeleteDrop the gloves with UAE
Canada doesn’t need to stand for the abuse coming from this tiny Mideast bully
By Colin Kenny, Citizen Special January 8, 2011 Comments (35)
The United Arab Emirates is acting like a pompous thug that thinks Canada need it. We don’t, Colin Kenny writes.
The United Arab Emirates is acting like a pompous thug that thinks Canada need it. We don’t, Colin Kenny writes.
Photograph by: CNW Group, Emirates Air
The United Arab Emirates has gone into a princely snit over our refusal to grant it more landing rights in Canada for its airline, and has decided it can bully us into changing our minds. I suggest that we push back, firmly, because the UAE has not realized that Canada has options, too.
Why does the UAE so desperately want more landing rights? Because it has bought a lot of big fat aircraft as part of its decade-long, oil-fuelled spending spree, and needs to fill seats by moving North Americans through Dubai to the Middle East and Asia.
When the Canadian government refused, the UAE proceeded to: a) kick Canada out of our staging base for Afghanistan that was located on UAE soil; b) refuse our minister of national defence and our chief of the defence staff permission to fly through its airspace after they were in the air; and c) introduced the need for expensive visas for any Canadian wishing to visit their country.
Here’s what I think we should consider in response: a) void the landing rights UAE airlines already have; b) forbid them to fly in Canadian air space; c) slow down the processing of visas for anyone from the UAE who wants to visit Canada; and d) tell them to convince us that nobody connected to any of the Emirates’ royal families is supporting antiwestern terrorist activities.
Why would I want to drop the gloves in dealing with the UAE? Because I think they’re essentially a bunch of pompous thugs behaving like Canadians need them. We don’t, and somebody should show them they can’t treat us like the second-class citizens they hire to do virtually all the work in their seven fiefdoms.
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Drop+gloves+with/4078901/story.html#ixzz1AghEaJ9e
Bob Rae will have to deal with Liberal Senator Colin Kenny on the UAE question who has no use for them, states his position strongly, as you can read in his article in the Ottawa Citizen. I think that Bob Rae just stepped in the ka ka and Ignatieff now has a big problem to sort out in the Liberal family. Kenny pulls no punches on this one and lines up with Harper 100%.
ReplyDeleteDrop the gloves with UAE
Canada doesn’t need to stand for the abuse coming from this tiny Mideast bully
By Colin Kenny, Citizen Special January 8, 2011 Comments (35)
The United Arab Emirates is acting like a pompous thug that thinks Canada need it. We don’t, Colin Kenny writes.
The United Arab Emirates is acting like a pompous thug that thinks Canada need it. We don’t, Colin Kenny writes.
Photograph by: CNW Group, Emirates Air
The United Arab Emirates has gone into a princely snit over our refusal to grant it more landing rights in Canada for its airline, and has decided it can bully us into changing our minds. I suggest that we push back, firmly, because the UAE has not realized that Canada has options, too.
Why does the UAE so desperately want more landing rights? Because it has bought a lot of big fat aircraft as part of its decade-long, oil-fuelled spending spree, and needs to fill seats by moving North Americans through Dubai to the Middle East and Asia.
When the Canadian government refused, the UAE proceeded to: a) kick Canada out of our staging base for Afghanistan that was located on UAE soil; b) refuse our minister of national defence and our chief of the defence staff permission to fly through its airspace after they were in the air; and c) introduced the need for expensive visas for any Canadian wishing to visit their country.
Here’s what I think we should consider in response: a) void the landing rights UAE airlines already have; b) forbid them to fly in Canadian air space; c) slow down the processing of visas for anyone from the UAE who wants to visit Canada; and d) tell them to convince us that nobody connected to any of the Emirates’ royal families is supporting antiwestern terrorist activities.
Why would I want to drop the gloves in dealing with the UAE? Because I think they’re essentially a bunch of pompous thugs behaving like Canadians need them. We don’t, and somebody should show them they can’t treat us like the second-class citizens they hire to do virtually all the work in their seven fiefdoms.
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Drop+gloves+with/4078901/story.html#ixzz1AghEaJ9e
Agreed - Drop them in their tracks - Immediately. They need to be dealt with and realize just who they are toying with.
ReplyDeleteCanada wont be suckered and the sooner we get this message across to them - the better!
Bob Rae = Stumblebum!
I have to wonder if Rae was elected by Toronto voters to make sure he never returned to Provincial Politics, as a possible leader of the liberal party.
ReplyDeleteWould love to be a fly on the wall at the next liberal caucus meeting to hear how iggy handles this.
It says it was a private visit, so did he really pay for it himself, or did he arrange some meetings so he could fleece the taxpayer.
Would love to see him defeated next election, as he will never be liberal leader or PM.
LOL, PMSH gave the landing rights to a UAE competitor!
ReplyDeleteUAE bully reaction was likely over Ottawa signing a landing rights deal with Qatar (right in the middle of this dispute with the UAE) after only 3 days of negotiation.
Yet the UAE have been fighting with Ottawa for 5 years.
'...Canada and Qatar have quietly signed an aviation agreement (Oct 25/10) that will allow Qatar Airways to fly three passenger flights and three cargo flights a week to and from the Gulf sheikdom.
...
Air carriers in Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands also have strongly objected to the rapid expansion of flights to Europe by Gulf carriers. (hence the 5 year dispute with the UAE?)
Canada had not publicized the new air agreement with Qatar, perhaps fearing potential further fallout from its escalating dispute with the UAE.
Newspapers in the UAE have not published any details of the air agreement between Canada and Qatar although media there usually cover the aviation industry very closely.
http://newsaviation.livejournal.com/112824.html